Common electrical switchgear assemblies are predominantly designed using so-called withdrawable part technology and/or modularized devices, wherein the operating means and devices for processing, control, measuring and switching are arranged on or in withdrawable parts and/or exchangeable modules or cabinets.
The withdrawable part technology provides a simplified access in case of fault or maintenance activities because the parts in question can easily be removed from the housing and therefore checked, repaired, exchanged or replaced without any considerable dismantling work.
Today's data center setups use stand-alone AC/DC and AC/AC converter units with uninterruptible power supplies to secure the energy supply of the data center. This configuration requires independent components to transfer the power from the medium-voltage level to a reliable uninterruptible supply on the low-voltage side for the server racks in the data center.
Common switchgear assemblies for data centers use separate stand-alone uninterruptable power supply (UPS) modules to ensure and secure a permanent energy supply to the consumers of the data center or any other connected consumer loads. In conventional assemblies, the configuration of the converter units hence needs to be dimensioned separately from the auxiliary power supply provided by the stand-alone UPS modules.
A disadvantage of such an assembly with stand-alone UPS modules is the additional effort required for engineering, commissioning and maintenance as well as costs and energy of thermal losses induced by cabling and the provision of additional breakers.